Okay, most known fact, but still, the guy has won 21 matches at WrestleMania and lost zero, so today’s very scientific pro wrestling analysis will rank the matches of The Streak from worst (#21) to best (#1). Each ranking comes with an explanation for its placement, but if you need a shorter answer, it’s “science.”

Share these findings with everyone you know, and let us know if your findings are a little different in our comments section below. Science isn’t perfect, after all. Even when we’re dealing with The Streak.

I can’t really speak to the quality of this upcoming match, but I’ll go so far as to say that I don’t like the build-up to this match too much.

Although you never really believed that anyone would get put into a position to beat Taker, the WWE did things that made you think, “But wait a minute… there’s this guy…”

Randy Orton had his Legend Killer nastiness. The Shawn Michaels rematch had Shawn going forward with hard-learned lessons from their first match. The third Triple H match not only established that it would be inside Hell in a Cell, but that he also had Shawn Michaels in his pocket as the guest referee. CM Punk exploited the loss of Paul Bearer and the theft of the urn.

What I’m saying here is that the WWE tries to incorporate drama to make the inevitable seem not so inevitable, that one of Taker’s opponents COULD pose a real challenge to him and the streak.

I’m not getting that here with Brock Lesnar. The dramatic stakes haven’t been raised and the build-up has been mostly one-sided. Aside from what we already know about Brock Lesnar being a tough-as-nails guy, the drama isn’t there like it was for other Wrestlemania matches.

I’m with everyone on this. The lack of drama really hurts the match. My choice was for Daniel Bryan to be the opponent. I think at least there, some in the crowd would have been rooting for Bryan (no one will be rooting for Brock) and also it set up a good story of Bryan could beat Taker at WM and HHH couldn’t do that in 3 tries. Alas, I will hope for Taker/Bray or Cesaro or one of the other young guns for next year.

Reigns seems to be the obvious guy to end the streak if it ever happens. The problem is, after Survivor Series and his run at the Rumble this would have been the year to pull that trigger and launch him to the top.

Two: “One of the dumbest finishes ever: Gonzalez CHLOROFORMS Taker, incapacitating him and drawing a disqualification.”

Why no one ever thought to beat the streak through disqualification – like a manager or a second wrestler beaning Taker’s opponent with a steel chair or something – I’ll never know.

(Yes, I know, Nathan Jones and all that.)

Three: “Imagine how great this would’ve been if Punk had held onto the WWE Championship and was cruising into WrestleMania at almost 500 days as champ, defending against the unbeatable, undefeated Undertaker? Thanks a lot, The Rock.”

Please stop reminding me of how pissed off I am about The Rock’s annoying comeback tour.

“Why no one ever thought to beat the streak through disqualification – like a manager or a second wrestler beaning Taker’s opponent with a steel chair or something – I’ll never know.”

That was actually a part of the story between Punk and Taker and Punk and Rock a month earlier. For whatever reason, Punk had a run of “whatever, DQ yourself and I win” stipulations that weren’t highlighted in the matches whatsoever.

punk learned that from his feud with jericho the year before. I loved jericho being a dick and trying to force punk to DQ himself because of the stipulation from big johnny where if punk was DQ’ed he’d also lose his WWE title.

I found that hilarious during the Punk match. Mike Chioda’s all “TAKER, I WILL DISQUALIFY YOU!” and I’m sitting here “Mike, if you disqualify him, you’ll be leaving MetLife in a literal bodybag. And not from Undertaker.”

They have to…I repeat HAVE TO…let Brock go over this time…the Streak is meaningless…bring Sting out and have him cost Taker the streak to be forever know as THE GUY THAT COST THE UNDERTAKERS STREAK and slow-burn starrcade 97 that shit so the next year it’s Taker/Sting Wrestlemania 31 in a Crow on a pole match. Throw Bray Wyatt in there make it an interspecies tag team match Bray/Buzzard vs. Sting/Crow vs. Undertaker/Sara

Your 1-10 are exactly as I would rank them, and I’m a HUGE Undertaker mark. The only difference is that I’d put Taker vs. Bundy lower. The Dibiase storyline was awful and a waste of time. Otherwise, I have a whole new level of respect for your rankings. Thank you!

HBK is my favorite wrestler of all time, and their Wrestlemania 25 match was the first thing I watched when I got the network. I STILL found myself holding my breath during that skin the cat spot. Flawless, flawless match.

I was at Mania 23, in the left corner that the camera always cuts to during promos, and I can tell you, that Taker match was phenomenal, and the four of us that were there sincerely thought Taker’s streak was going to be over. Batista murdered him with such intensity, and with the title being in play, MAN, did we ever think this was the night. Taker’s win felt like a relief more than anything, a total RELIEF that the Streak had survived.

Maybe it was actually being there that caused that feeling, but I’ve never felt that way about a Taker match before or since.

P.S. I think the Michaels-Cena match was equal to this one, it went long, told a great story, and to my money, was one of Cena’s best matches (which they then topped with that marathon in London the next month).

I feel a similar way about Michaels-Cena at Wrestlemania as I do about Punk-Cena at MITB ’11. The matches have great build-up and are extremely well done (the odd bit of Cena no-selling that piledriver withstanding), but objectively both times a RAW rematch outclassed the PPV match in every way (Michaels-Cena 1 hour, Punk-Cena #1 Contender’s Shot at The Rock’s title).

It’s a shame because Kozlov when he first debuts is like the most badass thing ever and he has the body of someone who will legit murder you with Sambo. He’s the real-life Sergei Dragunov and I wish that WWE would bring him back to team him with Rusev.

Great list. You’re almost guaranteed to be one of the few “well known” guys to rank HHH-Taker III as “low” as you did. I’m glad you did. The build-up to that match and the match itself was so bloated and dumb I was praying for HHH to win just so I wouldn’t have to possibly see a fourth match.

Disagree heavily on Batista-Taker. I actually did see that match after having viewed SummerSlam ’08 recently (Network free-trial), with Cena wanting to beat Batista because of that Taker match “stealing the show” and I couldn’t believe how sloppy it was. Having just seen Cena-Batista (which was freaking great!) and Taker-Edge HIAC at SummerSlam (OMG!), that really dulled Batista-Taker.

Great point about Diesel. I always get annoyed when people talk about Cena or Taker “finding a way to win” in tough match-ups when the way they found is no-selling and business as usual finisher.

Love Jake “The Snake’s” relatively high praise. I watched The Streak when it’s DVD came out and I found most of the first 10 matches boring, with the exception of Jake. That guy had his psychology down and deserves all praise, even if you could fit a baby in the distance that piledriver left between Jake’s head and the floor.

I went to 15, and when they announced Taker-Bossman in the Cell, I couldn’t figure out how they were going to get up on the cell like Taker and Foley did, or if someone was falling off like Foley or HBK did. But I had no doubt that someone was going to do something crazy, because this was Hell in a Cell, and that’s what happens in those matches. Ten minutes later I was making the Miz Girl face.

I love the first Austin-Rock match. To me it’s the definition of an Austin-McMahon era main event, a fun brawl that goes all over the arena and has a bunch of run-ins that are at least defensible in terms of story. Other than that and Pete Rose being tombstoned dressed like the San Diego Chicken, I don’t even remember the rest of that show.

Yeah, Rock vs Austin is great. I actually like that match a bunch. Randomly the only other thing that I remember is they randomly switch Road Dogg and Billy Gunns feuds and Owen and JJ fought Test and Dlo because they won a battle royal. Oh, and XPac vs Shane because I thought it would suck and it was just okay…wait, that’s pretty much the whole card, isnt it?

I felt X-pac/Shane was more than okay. I was constantly impressed by Shane’s uncultivated athleticism in the match, but he wasn’t built as a serious opponent and really only had a chance through interference; it was basically the perfect “slimy heel survives through the help of his friends” match with Shane bringing in the Posse, Test, AND eventually HHH to finish it out. It was violent, it was surprising, and it ended in an important “moment”.

I’m sure I’d look less favorably on it if I rewatched, but I loved Mania 15 at the time. The Mankind/Big Show match was also pretty great, if only for two moments of Mankind suffering ludicrous punishment; Big Show countering the Mandible Claw by just falling on him (exactly what he SHOULD do, but god, you could just see Foley’s body compress to wafer-thin) and then the chokeslam through two set-up chairs.

And then the Austin/Rock match which was pretty much the crowning moment of the Attitude Era, in my eyes. I know most would cite Mania 17 as the peak, but that felt more like the last hurrah of the era than the peak, to me, and a segue into something new with the Invasion and all.

Now I have to go watch HBK/Taker 1 for the hundredth time. That match is very special to me.
I had stopped watching wrestling for a couple of years, and happened to see a copy of WM25 at my local library. I watched it and nothing had really stood out to me, (except for this CM Punk guy, he looked pretty cool). All of that changed when Shawn and Taker had that classic match, I was hooked again. :)

1. “Arn Anderson being summoned like a Marvel Vs. Capcom character to spinebuster the Undertaker during Ric Flair’s match is at the very top of it.” <— is literally the same way I describe that moment every time I mention it.

2. The Undertaker/Batista match from Backlash the next month is just as good as their WM match IMO.

3. When Taker tombstones Michaels the first time, I got up and left the room thinking I'd just seen the most incredible match ever. I didn't know it went on for another five minutes until much later.

I don’t think I ever saw the Undertaker/Batista rematch from Backlash. That era was during my “only watch Rumble and Mania every year” period of fandom. I’ll have to check that out on the Network this week.

First off, I will never ever get tired of that Placebo video. It’s just perfect.

I grew up as a huge Undertaker fan. I remember my dad taking me to a house show when I was a kid that my brother bailed on because he was scared of Undertaker. It allowed us to get upgraded to second row tickets, and seeing the man that close seared something into me. As much as the product may suck at times, I stick around and have always said that the Streak is the last remaining thing from when the product was the greatest.

That said, I cannot disagree with the rankings. 25 against Shawn was just incredible. I honestly remember being on the edge of my seat because I seriously thought that was going to be it. That match took me from being the jaded 28 year old fan that I am back into the 7 year old just incredibly amazed at the story these guys were telling. I may have placed the Punk match a little higher, but that is because Punk was the one man I was totally okay with ending the streak, I just wish they had let him keep the title going into the match. Just think of how much more important the match would have been and how much more unpredictable it would have been if Punk hadn’t dropped the title to a sloppy elbow. So sad.

I’m not sure I’d say he’s a lock for the top 10 best in the company ever, but he was always pretty underrated in the ring during his main event run. I guess because most of his best matches were ladder matches, so he got pegged as a spot monkey or whatever. It doesn’t help that his last year in the company was as a terrible baby face, too.

I’ll never forget him winning his first title at New Year’s Revolution. Cena was probably at the peak of his “legit face” stage and had just won the weirdest Elimination Chamber match ever (the last two guys eliminated were Chris Masters and Carlito, both via roll up. HUH?!?). Then Vince comes out, announces Edge is cashing in and the place goes nuts. Edge hits the spear, Cena kicks out, everyone goes “What?!?” and then Edge spears him again. 1, 2, 3 and the arena goes bonkers for a heel totally stealing the belt from the top face. I still can’t believe the reaction it got and can watch that sequence over and over til the end of time.

@Brandon maybe but I still loved it. @Brad Curran I see what you’re saying, but from 2000-2009 he was incredibly underrated. I don’t get how anyone who watched him throughout the 2000s could claim he’s a spot monkey. Yeah he had some incredible ladder matches, is that a bad thing? There were plenty of singles matches that he carried and turn into classics.
@TwoTon21 that is one of my top 5 memories of WWE ever, mostly because I was (and am) a huge Edge fan and I saw it live. But the first ever cash in people were losing their shit. Amazing. They totally ruined the follow-up but that moment was top level heel shit.

I think taker/hbk at wrestlemania 25 was the best not because of the match (it was the best one but bear with me) but because there was a fat balding pink faced late 40s white guy in a Jerry Lawler affliction shirt first row facing the hard camera who lived and died wirh every undertaker move. This bro was legit losing his mind. Screaming at Micheals. Screaming more for Undertaker kickouts. He was the best. There were monomers when it was quiet enough and he was close enough to mics that you heard him yelling. He was the true star of that match.

Guess I need to begrudgingly watch Shawn/Taker 1 again, because I’m still the only person I know who thinks that match is absolute garbage. Not really worse than Shawn/Taker 2, or HHH/Taker 2 & 3 (they are all equally terrible) but it feels worse because it gets so much praise. It’s all just manufactured horse shit trying to be the ultimate “WrestleMania moment” in favor of just going out and having a great match. It’s 25 minutes of shouting LOOK AT HOW GREAT THIS IS instead of just being great. Rock/Hogan from WM18 is hot garbage too, but at least that had the genuine crowd reaction to make it feel better than it was. All of the HBK/Taker praise just feels like we’re all trying to convince ourselves that we saw the best match ever and it just rings hollow. I fully accept that the problem is most likely me. I’ll try to watch it again tonight.

I really can’t understand this opinion at all. So, in their attempts to have a great match, the effort they put forth in having that great match makes the match NOT GREAT? Come on. I’m not convincing myself of anything. When I saw Shawn/Taker 2 at XXVI, I thought it was better than XXV. Then I went back and re-watched them both, and I was completely wrong. XXV is not only the best Undertaker match in Wrestlemania history, or the best Michaels Wrestlemania match (although, Angle is close), but it’s the best wrestling match in the history of Wrestlemania. Everything about it is done perfectly. The story, the in-ring action. It’s amazing.

It’s probably still top five for me, maybe even top three, since there aren’t many all-timers from The Streak. The trio of uncharacteristic botches (Taker lawn darting himself on the dive, Shawn’s out of control moonsault to the floor, & the saddest tornado DDT ever) were just very jarring to me. Plus Sim got fired for Shawn’s mistake. I don’t usually have a very critical eye in the moment, but I remember kinda thinking as it was happening that Shawn was too far back when he pulled camera guy into the line of fire. That was the worst kind of crash & burn and I still don’t like to see it.

That said, while I feel ya on hating when they turn up the blatant, cheesy manufactured melodrama (DBry joining the Wyatt’s, the ending of Flair/HBK, etc), I recall the emotions in this one feeling pretty organic.

It bears an early rewatch for me once I get the WWE Network as well, though only the dive will be begrudging.

In response to Matt Steele – I guess my reasoning isn’t as clear or well stated as I intended. The WM 25 match feels much less like a match to me than it does a series of moments intended to each be highlighted and remembered as amazing without actually having a real match to act as the foundation for it all. It just feels like “then we’ll do this, applause break, then we’ll do that, applause break”. Beyond “This is the greatest match you’ve ever seen” there is really no story being told at all. Michaels/Flair I get. Undertaker/Flair I get. Michaels/Austin I get. Undertaker/Edge I get. Those are all similar matches that succeed in telling a story in between memorable moments. Michaels/Undertaker is just a highlight reel of IMPORTANT THINGS. It’s kinda like Spiderman 3 – there’s really no good story being told, but look at all these villains! It’s essentially a spotfest, which makes it boring and in my opinion a pretty terrible match. Again, I understand that I’m in the minority in thinking that. Michaels and Taker had that genuinely awesome and (relatively) organic moment in the Royal Rumble that set this whole thing up and not a single second of the match captures that magic. It obviously chases it though and is that much more disappointing for it.

While I think you’re totally off-base about the UT/HBK match, your complaint about “a series of moments intended to each be highlighted and remembered as amazing without actually having a real match to act as the foundation for it all” is exactly how I would describe the HHH matches at W27 and even W28.

I would have had the match with Orton in my top 5, and I would have put the match with Diesel in my top 10, but other than that, this list is pretty spot-on. I’m as equally obsessed with the Batista match as Brandon is. I rewatched it the other night, and it was INCREDIBLE. Batista’s best match, with only the Hell in a Cell versus Triple H coming anywhere close to it (and his first match against Cena, SummerSlam 08, I remember being pretty great, but I’ll have to re-check that).

I’m also curious if Brandon thought that Matt Striker’s commentary took away from the Mania XXVI match. It seemed out-of-place to me watching it recently, but it didn’t kill the match. However, I re-watched the 2011 Royal Rumble match recently, and OH MY GOD, Striker’s commentary ruins it completely. I had only ever seen that match live in person as it happened, and it wasn’t even that good (minus, you know, Diesel and Booker T and the Boston crowd shitting all over Orton and Cena with DEAFENING SILENCE), but adding Striker to the mix made that match about 100 times worse.

I thought the Streak should have ended at 13-0, since is has that nice Goth look about it. Now I dont think it should have ended.

You could have ended the streak at that time and still have Taker look good. He was doing the Devil’s Gate finisher and the complaint about the move was Taker starts the move while on his back which put him in a pinning position. Lance Storm wrote about the finisher and said that Nick Brockwinkle never slept on his back (for fear of being pinned). Taker could have had his opponent in the Devil’s Gate and the opponent could use a foreign object (urn perhaps) to clock the Taker, Taker rolls back a little and is pinned. Taker could still be holding the choke after being knocked out, which would keep him looking biker tough, but still being defeated. IMO.

I was at WrestleMania 23 and three things happened that I’ll never forget:

1.). I was so wasted I blacked out for the beginning.

2.). I threw up on my shoes and was back in the game.

3.). Batista and Undertaker put on what of the greatest matches I have ever seen!

I hate Batista and really wasn’t expecting a good match, but they fuckin crushed it!!!

Actually, this was the first time I learned that not everyone loved Cena and was SHOCKED by the deafening boos!!! Detroit’s hate of him was louder than any cheers that night by far. It was so baffling weird to me cause at the time I thought of him as wrestlings Eminem.

From what I remember reading online at the time, no one expected Batista vs. Undertaker to not be terrible. Batista was on an anti-hot streak after coming back from injury in 2006. He and Taker had shockingly great chemistry.

Great list Brandon, glad you ranked the Orton and Henry matches high, really underrated. And the fact that you left before edge/taker makes me sad! What a great match that was. Anyway I was there live for 23 and 25 and my god were those mat hes great in person! The hbk match in particular was amazing,the skin the cat nearfall is still the loudest noise iver ever heard from any crowd, best match ever for me personally. Ill be at mania this year too and im pretty sure taker/Brock wont top either sadly.

Thank you for putting Taker-Batista where you did. My roommate just started watching wrestling last August with me, and recently he asked me why I was even kind of excited for Batista to come back (NOTE: I HATE FACE BATISTA) and I showed him the WM23 match between Taker and Batista and he got it. That’s peak Batista in-ring, to be sure, but it was such a damn fantastic match

This is actually a pretty well-thought out and reasonable list, but if not for nothing, Undertaker’s WrestleMania 15 entrance is the best of them all. The Ministry was cheesin’ hard, but I sorta really truly love the hell out of it!

Me every year when Undertaker returns for one match every year at WrestleMania: “Why does he keep coming back?”
Me every year after Undertaker has his one match every year at WrestleMania: “Oh, that’s why he keeps coming back.”

1. I enjoyed the second and third Triple H matches because I had this semi-legit fear that Triple H would use his backstage swing to unceremoniously end the Streak simply because he could. It’s sort of how I consistently expect Triple H to ultimately top Flair’s most World Title reigns record simply because he wants to and Vince will let him to keep the Crown Prince happy. It added a real sense of foreboding to the match. Although in retrospect, both those matches are extremely suspect.

2. Why didn’t Giant Gonzalez get the Hell In A Cell re-match treatment when he incapacitated and tried to murder Undertaker with that chloroform rag? To me, he’s the REAL guy that got closest to ending it.

3. Wrestlemania 29 would have been infinitely better if they let UT fight Punk for the Title in a Streak. Did they REALLY need to add the title to a Rock vs. Cena re-match?

When Taker did the dive in the first Shawn match and landed on his head, I legitimately thought his neck was broken. I don’t know how he survived that. As if that match needed even more propping up, there’s that too. So awesome.

Saw the match for the first time the other day. I near threw up when that dive happened. Grew up on Taker and was expecting/looking forward to the suicide dive (it’s never not amazing to me that he can or will do that) and then… just Jesus. I assumed the match was overhyped but figured I’d pander to the eight-year-old in me with it and was absolutely blown away. I’m still rattled by that dive.